outlet blunder

Not sure if this is the right spot but here we go. I am in the middle of redoing a room in my house. I installed new sheetrock and put in slate tile floors. I have the old wire system in my house (2 wires with flex conduit for ground). I installed new three prong outlets with metal box so I would have a ground. all checked out good. But now my problem is that I forgot to adjust for the additional height of floor and know my outlets seem to be low, I wanted to install a wider baseboard but with outlets being a little low the bottom of the cover plate will be very close to the baseboard. Is there an easy way to fix this I am not thinking about. I thought about just installing those plastic outlet boxes with the wings and patching the old outlet hole but I think I will lose my ground. Pls help

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outlet blunder

I think I have an idea. Can I use the steel box as a like a junction box, cover with steel plate then run wire form there to the new outlet box for finished construction (the box with wings). I have only two to do.

outlet blunder

That is right, any boxes that have joints in them have to be accesiable and cutting drywall does not count as accesible so you would have to put a blank on there, unless you could take the wires right oout of the old box and put them in the new one.

outlet blunder

the problem with that is that the new box would have to be steel for grounding, I have to use a plastic box ( i have not seen a steel box that can be used for excisting construction)unless there is another way to ground it to the steel flex conduit.

outlet blunder

Quote:

Originally Posted by couchguy

the problem with that is that the new box would have to be steel for grounding, I have to use a plastic box ( i have not seen a steel box that can be used for excisting construction)unless there is another way to ground it to the steel flex conduit.

There are steel straps available that are kind of like a double t shape to hold steel boxes up tight against sheetrock. Two legs of the strap go against the back side of the rock and two tabs bend over the sides of the box. The adjustable tabs on the top and bottom of the box bear against the outside of the rock. You should be able to find them at HD, Lowes, or any decent sized electrical supplier.

outlet blunder

Your going to have to do drywall work to patch the old box holes anyway so just cut out a reasonably small area of drywall between the studs (from old height to new height), move the nail-on box up (hope you have enough cable there) and put in a drwall patch. You only have 2 to do.